because this sh!t aint easy

Summer Obsessions

Every summer, without fail, I become obsessed with a new “hobby”. I’m a teacher, and yes, I do sporadically work throughout the summer (so as to escape from the offspring), but I do have a little downtime here and there. As a rule, though, downtime generally makes me feel antsy. You know, idle hands, devil’s tool, blah, blah, blah.

I’ve been teaching for 16 years. Coming from a former career in IT, adjusting to downtime has not been an easy task. I feel that I have to constantly be doing something. Anything.

The first summer after I began teaching was spent toilet training a 2-year-old while making sure that the 3-year-old wasn’t getting into the knife drawer. Again. Filling time, while the kids were small, was easy. There was no time. Period.

But things have changed.

In summers as of late, since the boys are semi-self-sufficient (and I use that term loosely – why a 16-year-old can’t make himself grilled cheese before work is a failure on my part), I find myself fixated on new obsessions which generally last from June until September.

There was the summer I became a runner. And actually ran a half-marathon.

I was pretending I was being chased by zombies.

There was the summer of twig buckets – made by gathering twigs, hot-gluing them to coffee tins, wrapping them in raffia, shoving an arrangement of dried flowers into them, and handing them out to anyone who would take them. I found my ex- mother-in-law’s in her garbage. Can’t blame her for that.

not mine

There was the summer of sewing. And you get a wine bag, and you get a wine bag, and you get a wine bag!

F%ckin’ Oprah!

There was the summer of the Dremel. Need to etch your name on a piece of wood? Have no fear! Dremel Girl is here!

also not mine

There was the summer of Americana hand painted door-toppers, nested boxes, and glass milk jars to sell at a craft fair in November (The money I spent renting the table didn’t even cover the cost of the supplies…or the wasted milk).

still not mine

There was the summer of designing, developing, and coding a program for school systems that would save them time and make me a fortune. Naturally, upon completion, I had been informed that a large company had already developed and sold a similar product to my district as well as every other district on the Eastern seaboard…for a fortune.

Clearly, reader, I’ve left a few summers out in the above list. Tye-dying, jewelry-making (out of washers from Home Depot), sigh.